


(Not A) Picture Perfect Ideal of a Date

by artikgato



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Cooking Lessons, M/M, Video & Computer Games, souyoweek2016, they hint about sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 04:24:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7207715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artikgato/pseuds/artikgato
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Yosuke played his cards right he could have a belly full of delicious, warm curry and curl up next to Souji on the couch while they played a co-op game, or something. Not the picture perfect ideal of a date, but then again they were far from the picture perfect ideal of a couple, so...</p>
<p>For Souyo Week 2016 Day 3 - cooking/video games.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Not A) Picture Perfect Ideal of a Date

"Okay, now that you've got the rice cooking, we can move onto the vegetables."

Souji was, very patiently, teaching Yosuke how to make curry. Apparently that was Souji's idea of fun, because the two of them had agreed that they'd each pick a fun activity for the night, and this was what Souji had chosen. Not that Yosuke _didn't_ want to learn how to make curry! Anything to prevent another Mystery Food X, after all, and one of the many perks to this was that he got to eat Souji's curry - and fresh, even! There were literally no downsides.

It was a Saturday night, everyone else was busy, Dojima was going to be at work all night, Nanako was staying over with a friend, and the two of them had the place to themselves. Yosuke had wasted absolutely no time in stuffing a bag full of pajamas, a change of clothes, his toiletries, and an assortment of video games and controllers before practically sprinting over after he got the invitation. Video games had, of course, been Yosuke's idea of fun, and it seemed to him that it was an uneven trade, cooking for video games, but whatever. If Yosuke played his cards right he could have a belly full of delicious, warm curry and curl up next to Souji on the couch while they played a co-op game, or something. Not the picture perfect ideal of a date, but then again they were far from the picture perfect ideal of a couple, so...

Yosuke watched as Souji showed him how to properly chop an onion, trying to actually pay attention to what he was doing and not just get distracted by his hands... he _did_ have really nice hands, after all. He chopped about half of the onion up into neat little rows before handing the knife off to Yosuke. Yosuke's half of the onion...certainly got chopped, but it wasn't anything even resembling even. Not to mention, his eyes started tearing up almost the instant he so much as _touched_ the onion. By the time he was done, he could barely see.

"Gah, how can you _do_ that without going blind, man?" he asked, scrubbing at his tearing eyes with the edge of his t-shirt. Souji chuckled.

"I know that onions have a hard life, Yosuke, but you don't have to _cry_ about it," Souji teased, handing him a damp towel. Yosuke snorted.

"Ass," he accused as he wiped at his eyes, and Souji laughed.

"The secret is to not breathe through your nose," he replied, and Yosuke sighed.

"Of course it's something simple," he grumbled.

"You'll get the hang of it," Souji assured him with a disarming grin. He reached for a couple of stalks of celery, hesitated for a second, and looked back and forth between the vegetables and his boyfriend. Finally, it seemed he made a decision, because he took a couple of steps back and motioned for Yosuke to stand where he had just been. Yosuke blinked but shrugged, obediently moving to stand in the space he'd just been occupying, right in front of the cutting board.

"It'll be easier to show you like this," Souji said, and then he pressed up right behind him, chin resting on one shoulder, hands snaking around his torso. He grinned over at Yosuke when he made a surprised noise. "Hmm? Uncomfortable?"

"N-no, just wasn't expecting it, that's all," Yosuke mumbled, looking away and trying to will away the blush on his cheeks with a huff. Souji reached for the celery again and nonchalantly began slicing it up, eventually taking Yosuke's hands and guiding him through the motions. Yosuke did manage to get the hang of it eventually even with his ever-present blush. Next were some carrots, which Yosuke chopped up somewhat evenly, grinning at Souji's praise. Potatoes were next, still warm from where they had been partially boiled.

"The chicken can get messy," Souji announced, once Yosuke was done with the potatoes. He moved away, and Yosuke surprised himself with how much he already missed his warmth, but soon Souji appeared right beside him, scooting him away from the cutting board gently by bumping him with his hip. He watched as Souji cut up the chicken breasts like it was the easiest thing in the world.

"Now that everything's chopped up, the real fun begins," Souji said with a big grin. There could be no doubt that Souji really was enjoying this. "I use a big pan and olive oil, but it doesn't matter what you use. You need to start with the onions first," he continued, scooping the pile of diced onions into a nearby pan, already slick with oil. "Let them cook until they're translucent."

"Translucent?" Yosuke asked, confused. "What, like see-through?"

"You'll see," Souji replied, stirring the frying onions around with a spatula a few times. True to his word, the onions did eventually turn what Yosuke could only describe as translucent.

"Okay, what's next?" he asked, but Souji was already a step ahead of him. He had a bit of garlic in one hand and a small grater in the other.

"You add garlic and ginger. You can buy the powder but grating it fresh really brings out the flavor," Souji explained, eventually setting down the garlic to pick up a bit of ginger root and start grating that.

"How do you know you've got enough?" Yosuke asked.

"I just...do. I've made this enough times to know how it tastes if I add too much of one or not enough of the other," he explained, looking sheepish. "Sorry, I know that's not very easy to understand..."

"Well, I guess if there isn't a rule saying you can only add so much..." Yosuke replied, trailing off with a shrug. Souji nodded with a smile, turning back to the piles of chopped vegetables and meat.

"Okay, now you add the chicken," he continued, and soon enough the delicious smell of cooking meat was permeating the kitchen. Yosuke's mouth started to water. "Cook it until it turns completely white, with no pink left." Yosuke watched, kind of entranced, as Souji stirred the meat and onions around, making sure to turn the meat so that each side got an equal amount of time in the oil. Eventually, he reached for the rest of the vegetables.

"Then you just add the carrots and potatoes, pour in some stock, and leave it to boil for about twenty minutes," Souji told him, pointing with the spatula at a bowl on the other side of the stove. "There's the stock, it's left over from the stew I made last night."

"Okay, so, just pour it in?" Yosuke asked, carefully bringing the bowl over toward the pan.

"Slowly...and not the whole thing, just enough to fill up the pan...good..." Souji talked him through it, nodding in satisfaction when enough stock was in the pan. He put the lid on with a satisfied sigh, and Yosuke chuckled a little. When Souji looked up at him curiously, prompting him to explain, he blushed a little.

"It's just...I dunno, I thought I would've been bored or...like, frustrated that you're explaining something simple like cooking to me as if it's as hard as algebra, but this is actually kinda fun," Yosuke explained, and Souji grinned.

"Well, the fun is just getting started," he replied. "Now we make the roux." Yosuke watched, jaw slowly dropping, as Souji started pulling jar after jar of spices out of the cabinet.

" _That much stuff_ goes into curry?!" he demanded, and Souji blushed a little.

"Not usually. Most people buy the premade roux, or if they make theirs from scratch they don't make the garam masala themselves...I usually don't make mine entirely from scratch either, but I wanted to do something special today..." he babbled.

"Oh!" Yosuke squeaked in response. The way Souji was blushing was _really_ cute. And...he'd done something like this just for _Yosuke_?

"D-don't get me wrong! It's not _just_ because I'm teaching you, I really wanted to try it and, well, I know curry is your favorite..." he explained.

"Thanks, Partner. Okay, so how do we make the...what did you call it? Garm malts?"

"Garam masala," Souji corrected, with a little shake of his head and an overly dramatic sigh.

  
As it turned out, garam masala, while not all that difficult to prepare, was composed of a bunch of different powders that all looked the same to Yosuke, most of which he'd never even _heard_ of (seriously, what the hell was anise?). It didn't take all that long to mix them up, either. Apparently it was best to toast them a little in a frying pan first, who knew? From there it was just melting some butter, mixing in flour, adding in the spicy concoction and some curry powder, and stirring it all together. Souji made it look effortless, of course, but Yosuke was sure he would probably burn down his house in his attempt to recreate it. But nevertheless, the roux was done and now they still had ten minutes to kill until the next step.

"It's best not to leave the stove unattended," Souji said, with a frown, when Yosuke suggested they go watch TV for a few minutes, or go upstairs and play a quick match on one of his video games.

"Well, what do you suggest we do, then?" Yosuke asked. "Just stand here staring at the timer?"

"I've got a few ideas," Souji replied, and Yosuke noticed the gleam in his eyes a little too late as he closed the distance between them, leaning into his personal space and giving him a quick peck on the lips. He was smirking when Souji pulled back.

"You have the best ideas," Yosuke said, and then they were making out. Ten minutes seemed to go by in the blink of an eye, because before Yosuke knew it, Souji was pulling away from leaving a trail of hot kisses up the side of his neck, the beeping noise of the timer only registering to Yosuke a second later.

"That was fast," he panted, shaking his head a little to try to get himself back on the track of learning how to make curry.

"We're almost done. Now you can add a little bit of the stock to the roux," Souji explained, using a ladle to scoop up some of the boiling liquid from the first pan and dump it into the pan with the roux in it. "Stir it up really well, and then pour the roux into the soup..." He helped Souji do just that. "Then you just stir it up until it thickens, and it's ready to serve. I'll get the rice while you stir."

In no time at all, Yosuke was scooping some delicious, golden curry onto a plate beside some rice.

"This smells _amazing_ ," he groaned. Souji grinned, handing him a glass of cold juice, and with dinner and drinks in hand the two of them made their way up the stairs and into Souji's room. Yosuke tried to savor the curry, he really did, but after the first bite he just couldn't help himself.

"Did you taste it at _all_?" Souji teased, only halfway through his own plate when Yosuke leaned back with a satisfied sigh.

"A little. Guess I better get seconds, huh?"

Two more plates of curry later (only one more for Souji), a full and very satisfied Yosuke was, indeed, leaning back on the couch, belly full of curry, with Souji curled up beside him, controllers in hand.

Before they'd started dating, Yosuke had played almost nothing but first-person shooters, fighting games, or long-winded RPGs. After he got over his panic and shock of having feelings for a guy and the two of them started dating, Yosuke had intentionally started buying more games that were cooperative. Not that they didn't occasionally play competitive games - Souji was _really good_ at driving games for some reason - but it was so much more fun playing _with_ him instead of _against_ him.

That, and he got kind of pouty if he lost too many times, and Yosuke did not throw matches. Even for his adorable, pouting boyfriend.

Today they were playing an RPG. It had been in the bargain bin at Junes and was about a year old, and Yosuke hadn't really heard of it, but sometimes there were surprisingly good games in the bargain bin, so he'd taken a chance on it. So far, Souji was really enjoying it - the lore of this world was really pulling him in. Yosuke hadn't payed much attention to it, to be honest, content to watch Souji instead as the game world and cutscenes delighted him. It was about some heroes climbing up a huge, monster-infested tower. You could pick between eight classes, which was a pleasant surprise. He went with his usual choice in games like these - the high HP, high defense tank that could take hits and dish them out. After some careful deliberation, Souji chose the purple-haired mage girl with the hilariously inadequate armor - seriously, a stray rock could probably take her down with as much skin as she was showing - and they were off. It didn't take them long to fall into a good rhythm, Souji using fireball spells from far away, Yosuke charging in and taking out enemies, and Souji healing him afterwards.

A yawn from Souji prompted Yosuke to pause the game, and they both stared in shock at the time displayed on Yosuke's phone - they'd somehow played until two in the morning!

"Well," Yosuke sighed as he saved their progress and reached over to turn the game system and TV off, "I guess this rules out any...funny business." He'd meant it halfway as a joke - he _was_ hopeful that Souji would want to do something... _else_ with him, but if he was too tired he also totally understood.

"I don't know about _that_ ," was Souji's reply, and Yosuke blinked up at him, taking in the sudden bedroom eyes and lazy grin. He laughed.

"You're the best boyfriend ever, you know?" he asked.

"You too," Souji replied, and when Yosuke scoffed, he nudged him slightly with a socked foot. "Now go brush your teeth. I'm not getting up to any funny business if your mouth tastes like curry."

"Yes sir!" Yosuke joked, standing up (the sound his spine made in response made him cringe a little) and making his way over to his bag to retrieve his pajamas and toiletries. Delicious curry, an evening of video games, and a night of sexy, sexy shenanigans...it was perfect. Absolutely perfect. If every night of his life was like this, Yosuke would never, ever complain.

**Author's Note:**

> The true irony here is that I am horribly allergic to curry
> 
> I didn't want to reference any actual game, so I kind of just made up some details about one. If I ended up really close to an actual game let me know because I might want to play it, lol.


End file.
